FREE IS MY LIFE: MOVIE REVIEW: ParaNorman

This movie review for "ParaNorman" was written by guest blogger Liz Parker...

In one of the opening scenes of ParaNorman, we see Norman hanging out with his grandma in his family's living room. They're having a conversation: he talks to her and she responds. Pretty normal, right? When Norman goes into the kitchen, however, his parents scold him for talking to his grandma, and say that he needs to get over her death - which means, if you didn't know already from the trailers, that Norman can talk to dead people.

Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee Let Me In) has an unusual gift. When he walks to school in the morning, he says hello to many people, but a "normal" person would just see him talking to himself, because Norman can see things that others can't: specifically, the "auras" of the deceased. When his crazy uncle, Mr. Prenderghast (voiced by John Goodman, TV's Community), suddenly passes away, his ghost tells Norman to go find a book that his corpse has and make sure that the infamous town witch doesn't come back to haunt the town for its 300th birthday celebration. Unfortunately, Norman isn't fast enough, and he and his enemy Alvin (voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Fright Night) soon find themselves running from seven zombies intent on killing them ... so they think.

The voice cast in this film has a lot of A-listers, and some of them I started to recognize throughout the film because they have distinctive voices, such as Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Elaine Stritch (aka Jack Donaghy's mom on the TV show?30 Rock) as Norman's grandma. Anna Kendrick (What To Expect When You're Expecting) voices Norman's sister Courtney, as well, and Leslie Mann (Funny People) voices his mom.

Yes, see this film, and see it in 3D if possible.The 3D was the type that is so good you forget it's there after a while, until something finally pops out from the screen (in this case: flies) and scares you. I thought that the movie was actually a little scary for younger children, but I saw the film with a blogger friend and her two girls and they were fine with it, so I guess it would depend on the child. There were fun little things scattered throughout for the adults, as well - there was a sign on the school board that said "Spelling bee - next Wensday" (should be "Wednesday") and in a scene where one character breaks into Town Hall, he uses a message board that said something like "Meeting against violence next week," which was funny. ParaNorman?is one of the better kids' movies I have seen lately, and it gets one of my highest recommendations for films that have opened in the past few weeks.

ParaNorman?is in theaters now and is rated PG with a runtime of 93 minutes. 4 stars out of 5.

Click here is movie trailer for "ParaNorman" is not shown

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Liz Parker is a University of Michigan graduate with a degree in Creative Writing and Literature, and she loves going to the movies.?Visit her at her movie blog?Yes/No Films

Source: http://www.freeismylife.com/2012/08/movie-review-paranorman.html

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Ecuador leader seeks moral halo in asylum fight

LIMA, Peru (AP) ? An economist schooled in the United States and Belgium, Rafael Correa was judged among the more cerebral of Latin America's new breed of leftist leaders well before Julian Assange strolled into his country's London embassy and gave Ecuador's president a chance to seize the global spotlight.

Correa's decision to grant asylum to the WikiLeaks founder Thursday seems anything but an emotional roll of the dice.

The former lay missionary knew he was apt to deeply offend the United States, Britain, Sweden and likely the European Union.

He knew he would be inviting commercial and political retaliation that could hurt his small petroleum-exporting nation of 14 million people.

No such retaliation has yet come, but the standoff is young.

Britain says it won't allow Assange safe passage out of the country. Sweden, where Assange is wanted for questioning for alleged sexual misconduct, summoned Ecuador's ambassador to issue a stern protest.

Offering asylum to the man responsible for the biggest-ever spilling of U.S. secrets was apparently too attractive for Correa to resist.

It let him stake a claim to moral high ground, associating himself with a man whose adherents see him as a digital age Robin Hood crusading against abuses of big governments and corporations and who believe the Swedish extradition request is a pretext for shipping Assange to the United States to face a kangaroo court.

U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House's Western Hemisphere subcommittee, has met with Correa several times and believes he understands the gamble.

"He's a very smart guy and this wasn't done in a vacuum," Engel said. "The reason is to kind of be the head of the poke-the-United States-in-the-eye group."

That club includes Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba ? the latter formerly the top Latin American destination for people fleeing U.S. and European prosecution.

"It's not just done because Julian Assange should have freedom or shouldn't be persecuted," Engel said of Correa. "If that were the case, why is he persecuting his own journalists?"

Correa was the reason the director of Ecuador's main opposition newspaper did some asylum-seeking of his own early this year, holing up in Panama's embassy in Quito for 14 days when Ecuador's high court upheld a criminal defamation ruling against him and other top editors.

Correa later pardoned them and forgave a $42 million damage award against El Universo, but free press and human rights groups say Ecuador's president remains a threat to any speech not to his liking.

He has also used media ownership restrictions enacted by a loyal congress to diminish the power of opposition-owned media, which he claims are intent on destroying him.

Political scientist Vicente Torrijos of Universidad del Rosario in Colombia said giving Assange asylum provides Correa "a huge smoke screen to try to hide his treatment of the press."

Torrijos called it "propagandistic pragmatism" likely to please those who like to cheer on anyone who stands up to the United States and its allies.

Such people have played a big role in electing leftist leaders across South America as U.S. influence waned over the past decade.

Marta Lagos, director of the Chile-based Latinobarometro polling firm, said she found it remarkable how Correa seized an opportunity to become standard-bearer of the sovereignty of little nations fed up with the sometimes imperious U.S. meddling in Latin America, as exposed in 2010 when WikiLeaks unleashed a quarter-million cables sent home by Washington's diplomats.

"It made the world bigger," she said. "There have been very few times when an emerging, underdeveloped country like Ecuador has committed an international political act of this potency."

Correa, 49, met the 41-year-old Assange for the first time in May, in a long-distance video hookup, when the Australian ex-hacker interviewed the president for his Kremlin-funded TV program.

"Your WikiLeaks have made us stronger," Correa told Assange. "Welcome to the club of the persecuted."

A month later, Assange was bedding down inside Ecuador's embassy in London.

One cable published by WikiLeaks prompted Correa to expel a U.S. ambassador in 2010 for alleging a former Ecuadorean police chief was corrupt and suggesting Correa had looked the other way.

Correa has spurned U.S.-backed multinational lenders and alienated international capitalists as he courts the likes of Russia, Iran and China. The latter is now Ecuador's main lender and buys most of its oil.

At home, analysts don't think the Assange embrace will have much effect on Correa's high popularity. His approval ratings top 70 percent, in large part due to generous social welfare spending.

Outside is another question.

"It is hard to see how Correa comes out a winner," said Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. "There are no gains, only potential losses."

Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America said he was surprised by the move.

"Ecuador's diplomatic relations with Europe, especially the U.K., are in danger of collapsing," he said.

Engel expects the decision will alienate the U.S. Congress, prompting it to vote against renewal of the Andean Trade Preference Act, which allows Ecuadorean goods into the United States free of tariffs.

Forty-five percent of Ecuador's exports go to the U.S., accounting for about 400,000 jobs.

Trade with Sweden and Britain, by contrast, are piddling. Ecuador exported $23 million in goods, mostly food, to Sweden and $134 million in goods to Britain last year. Sweden doesn't even have an embassy in Ecuador.

A preferential trade pact with the European Union expires at the end of 2013 and if it's not renewed, Ecuador's exports could be cut 4 percent, costing it jobs. Talks on renewing that pact already have been stalled for six months.

Correa, in typical fashion, proclaims that he doesn't want a free trade agreement. He wants a different sort of pact, one that would protect Ecuador's weaker agricultural and manufacturing sectors.

It's a bit like Correa's proposal for preventing oil development in Ecuador's pristine Yasuni rainforest reserve. He has been asking European nations to pay Ecuador not to drill in the reserve.

So far, commitments have been few.

___

Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador; Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Vivian Sequera in Bogota, Colombia; Karl Ritter in Stockholm and David Stringer in London contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ecuador-leader-seeks-moral-halo-asylum-fight-072346607.html

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PFT: Tebow tries to recruit silver medalist Demps

Andy Reid, Michael VickAP

It doesn?t take a degree in psychology to help figure out the bond between Eagles coach Andy Reid and quarterback Michael Vick.

Reid was a father with a troubled son who wanted to make it right for someone. Vick was the troubled kid looking for some guidance.?But the two have grown much closer than imagined in three years, to the point they?re almost family themselves.

?I can say that while coach has been in my presence, while I?ve been here, he?s been a sort of father figure,? Vick told NFL.com?s Albert Breer. ?[As] a father figure, you?re mentoring someone, anyone you care about, you?re gonna tell them the right things to do, the correct way to do things at the right time, and give them advice when they need it.? And that person needs to be open and easy to talk to. That?s a father figure.

?I can honestly say he?s been the substitute for the man in my life that I don?t have right now. It?s great, because I really don?t have too many people to lean on.?

When Reid offered Vick his first post-prison opportunity three years ago, things looked much different. Donovan McNabb was the incumbent, Kevin Kolb the draft pick being groomed to replace him. All Reid offered Vick was a chance to get in shape.

?The one thing coach told me was I needed some time,? Vick said. ?He more than anybody convinced me that I needed time to get my legs back, and the reason I believed him ? I don?t know. I really thought I could come back and play. But I knew the type of numbers that Donovan had. I knew every time a quarterback other than Donovan stepped on the field, he had success. So I was saying to myself, ?What better place to go, with a coach that I really admired from afar when I knew nothing about him???

Now, the two are linked by loss. After the death of Reid?s son Garrett, Vick said he was ?crushed.? And you can tell by the way coach and quarterback respond to each other, there?s more than the typical bond.

?I mean, I?m close with him. I understand that. It?s obviously humbling, because is a good kid,? Reid said. ?When you go through certain things with certain people in your life, you become very close to them. He knows I?ll always be there for him, to help him out.

?That doesn?t mean I?m not gonna coach him hard or do those things, but I?ll always be there for him.?

That kind of loyalty is what Vick was looking for, and part of the reason he wants to win, to repay the favor.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/08/16/tim-tebow-tries-to-recruit-jeff-demps-to-the-jets/related/

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Jacob Zuma orders inquiry into South Africa mine shootings

President Jacob Zuma has announced an inquiry into the shootings at a South Africa mine that have left 34 dead and 78 injured.?

"We have to uncover the truth about what happened here," said Zuma Friday. "In this regard I've decided to institute a commission of inquiry. The inquiry will enable us to get to the real cause of the incident."

The violence at the Lomnin Marikana mine started with clashes between police and striking workers. Police reportedly opened fire onto a group of protesters who were armed with machetes and clubs, GlobalPost's South Africa correspondent Erin Conway-Smith reported.?

However, there are conflicting accounts of how the shootings unfolded, and police say they fired on protesters in self-defense, the South African Press Association reported.

More from GlobalPost:?South Africa: Police say 34 dead in Lonmin Marikana mine shooting (VIDEO)

President Zuma left a South Africa Development Community meeting to visit the site of the shootings on Friday, and offered his condolences to the victims' families, the Mail and Guardian reported.

"We offer our sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones," Zuma said Friday, according to the Mail and Guardian. "The events of the past few days have unfortunately been visited upon a nation that is hard at work at addressing the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality."?

More from GlobalPost:?South Africa: Police fire on workers at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine (VIDEO)

Zuma stayed away from blaming either side for sparking the violence in his address, BBC News reported.?

"Today is not an occasion for blame, finger-pointing or recrimination," said Zuma. "Today challenges us to restore calm and to share the pain of the affected families and communities. Today is about reminding ourselves of our responsibility as citizens."

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/south-africa/120817/ja...

Source: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/south-africa/120817/jacob-zuma-orders-inquiry-south-africa-mine-shootin

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Choosing paint colors ?. Interior designer | Home Improvement Tips

selecting paint colors, interior designer tips, when to choose the paint color. Interior Designer Rebecca Robeson begins a series on how to choose paint colors for your home. The choice of paint color is a choice of several layers and learn how to choose the color and texture, is a challenge in itself, but if they are selected, the primary focus of Rebecca in this video ? the first in a series over a period uploaded.
Video Rating: 4/5

Source: http://jorgemier.com/home-decorating/choosing-paint-colors-interior-designer.htm

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Awesome Home Organization Tips - Real Estate North Reading MA

Getting organized in your home can be less expensive and easier than you think. There are items all around your home that can help you get the clutter in order. Here are just a few tips to get you off to a good start:

A big problem is spices, they get lost in the cabinet, take up tons of room and are always hard to see. If this is a problem in your home use a?mop holder to store spices on the inside of a cabinet door.

Too many craft supplies and a place to put them is a typical problem. Arrange crayons, colored pencils and more in an over-the-door shoe organizer. You have all your supplies organized and easy to see in no time.

Use the shoe organizer for anything. It can also be great for cleaning supplies.

If you need decorations for your playroom walls and you have too many board games this is a great solution. Take the glass out of frames and frame the board games and hang on the walls. Attach the game pieces in little baggies to the frame.

What about all that jewelry? If you could actually see it you may even wear it more. Hang a peg board on the wall in your closet and hang your necklaces from it.

Need a place to put your earrings? How about an ice cube tray?

These are just a few nifty ideas. What are your best ideas to keep your home organized?

Source: http://www.northreadinghomesforsale.com/blog/awesome-home-organization-tips

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The Dark Art of PC Gaming | 8bitbot

There are many reasons console gaming has become so popular over the last ten or so years. Least of which isn?t that the three console giants spending billions of dollars on marketing, exclusivity deals and movie and TV-show tie-ins. Factor in the success of motion and touch gaming with the Wii, Kinect and iDevices and it?s easy to understand why people turn to their living room for their gaming fix.

These are not the only reasons though.

Console games have always been associated with ?trouble-free gaming?. Pop in the disc or cartridge and game away. It wasn?t until the Xbox 360 arrived when patching was introduced and subsequently the PS3 game publishers also adopted the same ?release now, patch later? way of thinking. However, for the most part pop-in-and-play is still very much at the heart of what makes console gaming so attractive to the biggest percentage of users.

2012 on the other hand is widely being described as the last year of the current generation. Nintendo?s Wii-U will be the first of the new generation of consoles to hit store shelves and no doubt Sony and Microsoft will have unveilings for their new consoles within the next six months. But until the time we have PS4s and Xbox 720s in our living rooms gaming enthusiasts like myself with a little extra cash seeking thrills of cutting edge gaming have again started to turn to ye old personal computer.

I bought a new gaming PC about a month or so (admittedly to play that new Blizzard game) but was delighted to see how Valve has almost single-handedly simplified and networked PC gaming with their Steam service. This is not even mentioning the incredible deals that we console gamers have been missing out on.

However, my excitement quickly subsided when I couldn?t get one of the games bought off Steam to work immediately. I was frustrated to learn I had to reinstall the game and do some file editing for it to work. It?s possible that it was just my bad luck but that was just the start of my problems.

The DayZ craze was just about at it?s peak by the time my rig was up and running and after a bit of searching I managed to get copies of the ArmA2 and the expansion needed to get the mod working. Many hours of patches later I ended up in a server, knowing only the basics of what I was supposed to do. A few days went by of me screaming at my PC everytime I broke my legs opening a door, being killed by a hacker or having my character reset for no reason. Yes, the game is very much still in alpha phase and bound to be broken in some ways, but with the amount of hype going around it I was shocked to see exactly?how broken?it was.

Playing League of Legends has also added to my PC rage. The ridiculous frequency of the patches have made me get up from my chair and turn on my PS3 on more than one occasion.

Okay, so maybe I?m being a little overdramatic and using DayZ as an example is a tad unfair. My observation remains true though. Console game developers have had stricter quality control over their games than their PC counterparts for years. It?s been quite a culture shock, and even a little nostalgic, extracting patch archives and deleting config files to get a game working. But without people to hype these kinds of mods and put up with its initial?brokenness there wouldn?t be success stories such as Counter Strike, DOTA and Minecraft.

Am I going to throw in the proverbial towel on PC gaming? Of course not! PC gaming provides the kind of flexibility other platforms can only dream of. Factor in things such as 4-way SLI and overclocked quad-core processors you?re pretty much at the highest point of the technical ladder. However, it?s been a humbling experience this last month. It has made me realize that for better or worse, gaming on PC hasn?t changed that?much from 2005. Now where?s my UE4?

?_____

Johan is a gaming and tech enthusiast from South Africa currently residing in Taiwan. He graduated in 2007 with a bachelors in computer science and has been writing and arguing about games since before the Y2K disaster. You can follow him on the twitters @ twitter.com/jevous

Source: http://www.8bitbot.com/blog/the-dark-art-of-pc-gaming/

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Google Play gift cards are real - and here's what they look like

Google Play Gift Cards

We've already seen the Google Play Store app getting prepped for gift cards -- and now we've scored the cards themselves. (Or, at least, a look at the outer wrapping.) We've been slipped a few pics of $10 and $25 gift cards, clearly branded for Google Play, with "Music Movies Books Apps & More" listed at the bottom.

It'll be interesting to see how they get positioned at retail alongside the likes of iTunes and Barnes & Noble and lord knows how many other gift cards, but this much is certain -- that triangular logo we were never too sure about should stand out pretty well.

Also unknown is where, exactly, the cards will be available. On a micro level, that means individual stores. Best Buy? Target? Wallmart? We'll see. But nearly as important is the global level. Developers hate seeing U.S.-only launches and, frankly, we're not fond of them either. (Not like we'll turn it down, but we'd prefer everyone has a chance to play. Google likely would agree.)

So, yeah. Gift cards are coming, and it looks like they're coming sooner rather than later.

We've got a couple more pics after the break for good measure.

Thanks, anon!

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Zv-Mlvy5ltA/story01.htm

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